Kim Joon's Bodies

Ahh, back to the body! There seems to be a theme appearing here - bodies and paint and sensuality. Kim Joon is a Korean artist who has made a recent impact with his body painting - not the type you see at Sexpos and Beerfests (although they wouldn't be out of place), but body art that has been elevated to another level. Like Emma Hack, Kim Joon's art walks a fine line between kitsch illustration, clever illusion and acceptable fine art. A former Korean soldier, Joon is now a professor at Kongju University and his exhibitions in the London art scene have had growing acceptance over recent years.

He uses 3-D animation software to create the body or bodies he wants, and he constructs them. Then after building the 3 dimensional body, he works to get the image he really desires. Then, he grafts on the type of skin he desires—it could be animal skin, artificial skin, human skin, the skin of a leather bag or skin of a shoe.  The computer program 3-D Studio Max (used to create Shrek and other 3D animation films) is used and there is no physical painting of models ever in any of the works.

There are obvious connections between the images and tattoos - an art form that has cultural resistance in Korea. It is illegal to have tattoos done in parlours there, so the works tend to have a slightly different meaning in his native Korea. Although the works are quite sensual (particularly the more recent works) Kim Joon never really set out to create erotic pieces. Any material serves him as a pictorial pattern, whether they are floral motives, commercial brand logos or Superman comics, whose graphic potential is enormous and explored and exploited by the artist.


Burn brightly, Pete